Saturday, October 3, 2015

TB Testing with the TB Blood Test

I participated in an Influencer Activation on behalf of Influence Central for the TB Blood Test. I received a promotional item to thank me for my participation.

As parents, we have a lot we need to do to ensure the health and well being of our children and families. We try to stay on top of the checkups with the doctors to monitor our families health, we try to keep them away from others when they are sick. We teach our kids the importance of hand washing, covering their mouths when they cough, and also by keeping our home as clean as we can. Along with this, we keep on top of the vaccinations and any tests everyone needs, and one that can be a trying one when it comes to the test and the time we have to take when we have had to get it done, is the TB skin test.

Years ago I worked in the medical field, and with that I had to ensure that I was up to date on my vaccinations, I had to get the flu shot each year, and another thing I had to do was get a TB test done. I can remember going in, every 4 years, getting that skin prick that puts a small amount of the TB protein in your skin. Once the test was started, you then had to wait a couple of days, to see if your skin has a reaction to the test. This test can make you itch in the place where it was done, and the reaction you can get is one where the site that the test was done on firms up and turns red, leaving a bump if you test positive for tuberculosis, which can also prove to be a false positive if you have ever had a TB vaccination. The skin test is basically a visual diagnosis from looking at your skin, leaving you going in for more testing like X-Rays and such, and if you are not positive for tuberculosis, it can end up taking more of your time.

The TB Skin Test is one that has been around for 110 years, and until recently, it was the only one I was aware of that was available. Because recently, I learned about the TB blood test that can be done in place of the skin test. The blood test not only eliminates that possible false positive you can get from the skin test that comes from a cross reaction from a previous TB Vaccination, but you only have to go in for one visit for the test, and they do a 3ml draw of fresh blood regardless of patients age or their immune status! Allowing you to not have to wait for 2 days to see if you get a reaction, but also making it so any anxieties that you or your loved ones might have about the skin test, a thing of the past! So if you or someone in your family are needing to go in to get tested for TB, be sure to ask your doctor for the TB Blood Test!